So what if anything was done differently than before? Different male maybe? Sorry about your incubator!
I think we've figured out who is passing what and are pairing accordingly. Offspring should at least maintain a semblance of phenotype - hoping for a few that are decent. We will limit further hatches (if we're able?!) this year to the brown red that's laying a nice, blue egg (she's small and overmelanized, but seems to be homo for E
R and pea comb) and a black hen we're working with. (Think I can see the difference between E/e
b and E/E
R in chick down, but we'll see how that pans out.)
Also, we've intentionally hatched a few of the recessive e locus chicks via father to daughter matings (looking for a male). Have to wait for feathering out, but one of them looks to be barred. HA! Haven't even begun to study how patterns work.